An expanded functionality is being considered for the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (i.e., 3GPP) that decides the technical specification of public wireless communication networks (see, for example, 3GPP TR 33.812 V9.2.0 (2010-06)).
Using such an expanded functionality, known as “Machine to Machine Equipment,” it will become possible to flexibly use information showing what services can be utilized. Such information may be referred to as a Machine Communication Identity Module (MCIM), which is one example of contact authentication information. As an example, it may possible to download an MCIM from a network, and additionally or alternatively, to temporarily invalidate and then revalidate an MCIM within a network.
At present, information corresponding to an MCIM needs to be stored in a physical device called a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card. However, if an MCIM could be handled as software, the method of storage could be made more flexible.